Note: Greetings, everyone. I would just like to apologize for the very late updating to this story. My other Fanfic I am working on at the moment is taking much more time than I thought, and wanted. Also, work has been holding me up and is likely to do so for a while. Still, I am posting this chapter just to reassure people that this story is not forgotten. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, within the cell hall

Cradled into a ball, the gentle rhythm of Susan's breathing was the only thing that filled the densely quiet air within the hall; her head looking down at the floor as it rest on her knees. Being a prisoner of Kyzua, next to be a terrifying thing as she was no longer with her own people, was also extremely boring and sleep seemed to be the only thing for her to do apart from waiting for her food and water to be given to her.

For the past two days, she had been the prisoner of her home world's invading enemy and had barely left her cell. Upon first glance at this predicament she was in, many would think that she should just grow to her giant size and break out of the cell, but yesterday when she attempted it, she found her ring's power unable to work within the confines of the cell; and the Kyzua, probably through the use of some hidden camera device of some sort, had sent in two guards to stop her and had knocked out using a device they called the Tulor, which translated means 'Blanker'. Susan had had the first-hand experience of it when one of them opened up her cell door and used it on her, knocking her out completely. She had woken up a few hours later and found Taiko standing over her and he pleaded with his human prisoner not to try any further escape attempts or he would have to, regretfully, have her 'taken care of' as he put it. It was only when she was taken back to her cell that she realised that the ring was still on her finger, which, as it had done when they had captured her, surprised her greatly, but did nothing to lighten her mood and made her ponder over the question she wanted to answer desperately.

Would she ever get off the ship? It was possible as Taiko had told her they planned to release her back to her parents soon; when exactly she did not know but with her recent escape attempt going completely wrong it was unlikely they were going to release her any time soon. Also, there were the families of the Kyzua down here and it the likelihood was that they were not going to let her go until they had left. Plus, Susan had to take into account that even if, by some miracle, she did manage to grow to her giant size and escape her cell, getting out of this ship was not going to easy in the slightest. After all, alongside the ferocity the Kyzua would put up to defend their families, their weapons were dangerous to her and she had only just escaped death from a predator tank blast. Her only real hope was Dr Cockroach and the others when they launched the planned attack on the ship.

Though, that was provided they managed to board it without being killed.

As she snoozed on, the blackness that filled the entire hall, save for the very dim purple light emanating from the haze that was Susan's cell door, the sound of whirring began to filter in, reverberating off the walls as if it were coming from everywhere at once. Then, a blinding white light filled the hall; wiping out the blackness that had engulfed it like the Bible tale of God creating the light in the universe. A group of large figures stepped into the hall, which, as if on cue to their entrance like some kind of great welcoming for a leader, lit up from the walls, destroying what was left of the darkness. The light and noise swept into Susan's cell, making her groan as she raised her head, groggily opening her eyes. Her vision was a little blurry as she tried to adjust to her surroundings from her sudden awakening.

"She is awake!"

The voice came from her right and she turned her head in reaction to it. What she saw made her eyes grow wide.

Coming towards her were three of the Kyzua, one leading with two flanking behind him, but for some reason they were much different than the ordinary ones she had met so far. The leading dragon was tall, heavily built, which she saw through his pulsating muscles, and had this aura of a monster emanating from him. On his left arm was a silver coloured medal-like object. Behind him his two guards, both of who were smaller than their leader, had dark green coloured medals attached to their arms; signalling that they were all Sankiar. As they neared her cell, Susan, who was now wide-eyed upon seeing the type of Kyzua they were, began to back away towards the end of her cell, her blue eyes not leaving the three dragons as they stopped in front of the haze. The leading dragon chuckled at her panicked state and pressed the button on the wall next to the cell; the haze fading away into nothing. Susan gulped. They could now enter her cell.

The leading dragon walked into the cell, flanked by his guards, towards Susan, a kind of nasty grin forming on his face, which only made her more nervous. He stopped in front of her and chuckled.

"Well, well, well," he said in a kind of intimidating tone. "Look who we have in our presence. A human meat puppet!" and he spat on the floor next to her foot.

Susan looked up at him with fear literally filling her eyes, her heart rate accelerating to the point where she felt like she was going to pass out.

Oh God, someone please help me! She mentally begged.

The leading Sankiar must have sensed her fear because he chuckled and knelt down in front of her, his head still towering over her. She tried to back away further, but the wall behind her stopped her and she was unable to stop the dragon from forcefully grabbing her face by the cheeks; his razor sharp-looking claws digging into them. He pushed his fingers together so her lips were squashed together, like a parent would do when making a silly face to their child.

"I shall admit, you do have a pretty face, human," he said to her. "But your kind are not worth me," he added, letting go of her face, relieving her of the pain of where he had grabbed her, and stood up and muttered something in his native language to his guards, making them chuckle; but Susan just stared up at them, her level of anxiety now going through the roof.

"So, what is your name, human?"

She did not answer but just kept looking up at him with wide-eyes, too scared to say anything in case he did something to her. Unfortunately, this was not proving to be the best solution for after a few seconds of no answer, the look on the dragon's face changed from one of intimidation to sudden anger that seemed to explode like a supernova. Without warning, he grabbed her by the neck of her uniform with his hand and held her up above the floor to his face; the anger emanating off of him.

"I said; what is your name?!" he growled dangerously at her, gritting his sharp teeth.

Susan began to stutter profusely, the expression of utmost fear etching across her face to the point where she looked like she was going to pass out. Behind her, the two Sankiar dragons looked at each other fearfully, not really because of what their leader was doing to her, but because he was angry and when he was angry it was very dangerous being around him.

"Now, are you going to tell me your name or am I going to have to…force it out of you?" he whispered to her in a softer, yet more dangerous voice.

Now looking more relaxed that his question had been answered, the dragon loosened his grip on her, but still held her above the floor.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Susan. My name is Kosian. Come let us shake," he replied, holding up his hand to her, but she did not dare take it as if fearing he was going to suddenly tear her apart; which only made him angry again.

"I said: let us shake!" he growled at her lowly, but angrily, grabbing her arm, which made her gasp out in pain as it felt like the circulation was being cut off by his strong grip. "Alright, I shall do it for you!"

Gripping down harder, he pulled her arm up and down forcefully several times before letting go and, just as before, his face became more relaxed at getting what he wanted.

"There, was that so hard?" he said in a fake comforting voice and opened his hand, dropping her onto her arm as she hit the floor.

Susan groaned as she sat up, rubbing her arm with her hand. That hurt, a lot! Looking back up at him, fear once again took hold of her and she backed away to the wall. There was no telling of what she was going to have to go through next.

"W-w-what do y-you want w-w-with m-me!" she stammered nervously and she was met with a chuckle from Kosian.

"I am here to show you who is you're new leader," he told her matter-of-factly. He moved his left arm so it was in full view to her and pointed to his silver medal. "You see this? This signifies me as a commander of the city below. Thereby, I am in control of all creatures below as well as on this ship, so, in effect, you are now mine!"

Upon hearing these words, a sense of anger began to quickly take root in Susan and slowly rise through her. His! She was not his! More importantly, there was no way she was going to let him think he was in control of her!

She shot up from the floor, an angry look on her face, which did startle Kosian at first but he quickly gathered himself and looked back at her with narrow eyes but a nasty grin; which was not a good combination of expressions on him.

"Looks like someone has gained a little courage!" he commented sarcastically, which made him chuckle; his guards doing the same when he looked over his shoulders at them with a glare. He turned his head back around to look at Susan. "Do not try and think you can be a match for me, Susan," he told her bluntly. "You cannot escape even if you were to somehow get through me, which is very unlikely to happen, just as with your own people fighting needlessly on the surface below,"

Susan's glare deepened. "Don't think you can win so easily!" she hissed. "We're already dealing you severe blows to your army. It's only a matter of time until you give up,"

Kosian chuckled at her words. "I do not think so. You must remember, we have control of most of the civilian populations and with the new A113 order issued some time ago, all I have to do click my fingers and all the people down below shall die," he added a kind of hint of enjoyment on the last word as if doing that would be something he would relish in greatly; though it only made Susan more angry.

Without even thinking, she punched him in the face as hard as she could and to her surprise he reeled back with a roar of pain, slamming his hands around his snout. For a moment, he stood there breathing heavily and shook off his guards as they attended to him. Then he lowered his hands, revealing a line of blood coming from one of the nostrils, and looked up at Susan, a menacing glare in his red eyes. She had hit him! How dare she, how dare she do that! Oh, he was going to make her pay dearly for doing that to him!

"You…little…!" and before she could react, he stepped forward and pushed her up against the wall with his hand against her throat, almost crushing her windpipe and making her breathing almost completely strangled. "How dare you do that to me, you little meat puppet!" he growled at her. "I will make sure you suffer dearly for that move against me!"

He pushed down harder on her neck, which made her vision fade with every passing second. Her breathing grew weaker, her eyes flickered and her legs began pedalling the air as if they tried to desperately free from his grip but it was too strong. She even grabbed his hand and tried to pull it off but this did nothing either, apart from making Kosian chuckle again.

"So pathetic you are in your bodily strength. There is no wonder to how your kind have endured for this length of time," he said in a taunting manner to her as her face began to turn blue from the lack of oxygen.

"KOSIAN!"

The yell startled him so much that he dropped Susan to the floor, which made her breath a gasp of relief as she sat up, massaging her neck. Kosian and his two guards turned to see another dragon enter the hall through the open door, a look of utmost anger on his face noticeable to them as he stomped towards the cell. Susan looked up and relief filled her. It was Taiko.

He pushed past Kosian's guards and stopped in front of him, their exact same heights now standing off to each other, waiting for the other to back down.

"What are you doing here?!" Taiko demanded in his Kyzuakan language.

"I have just as much right to visit the prisoners as you do!" Kosian barked back defiantly. He looked back over his shoulder at Susan. "As you probably can see-" he pointed to his bleeding nose. "-I had to punish her for hitting me!"

"You brought that on yourself! You know that you are not to leave my presence, you Kishan!"

Upon hearing the last word, the look in Kosian's eyes changed from anger to fury and he stepped closer to Taiko, clenching his fists. Taiko, however, held his ground, his more dominant gaze burrowing into Kosian, playing his game that he knew he would win.

"Go on then, hit me!" he sneered. "Try it, I dare you!"

Kosian's glare deepened and he even half-raised his hand to strike him but stopped it and then released his fist.

"I do not have time for this! I have other important matters to attend to! Move!" he pushed past Taiko and barked out a command to his guards to follow; which they did.

The three Sankiar left the cell and walked over to the hall entrance. The two guards left first but Kosian stopped and glared furiously at Taiko once more before he stepped out into the corridor and out of sight. When they were gone, Taiko walked over to Susan and knelt down in front of her.

"Are you unhurt?" he asked her worryingly.

She nodded, coughing a little as she tried to regain her breath. "Yeah, I-I'm fine!" she replied weakly. "Don't worry, he didn't hurt me much,"

"I am glad," he replied in a relieved voice, patting her knee. "I must say, that was very brave of you to do that to Kosian," he commented approvingly.

She looked at him questionably for a moment, as if unable to believe what she was hearing, but then smiled back and shrugged.

"Well, he did deserve it after what he said," she told him, making Taiko chuckle a little. When he stopped, she looked at him with a concerned expression. "Is it true, though? Is he really in control?"

"Oh, Susan, do not take heed of what that fool says! He is a Kishan and I am glad you dealt him that injury. He had it coming to him, as you humans say!"

She nodded a little and sighed heavily. "I'm surprised you have to put up with people like him," she said sympathetically to him.

He replied with a sigh and a shake of his head. "So am I, Susan. To be honest, I would not care if he died now and if it was painful," he looked back in the direction of the door to the hall. "And I hope it will be soon,"

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.